Robin Riker Of `Get A Life` Likens The Fox Sitcom To `i Love Lucy`

If you can`t quite figure what to make of Fox`s ``Get a Life,`` the quirky Chris Elliott sitcom airing Sunday nights, just ask Robin Riker, one of the program`s stars.

``I think it`s like `I Love Lucy` of the `90s,`` said Riker, who plays Sharon, wife of Chris` best friend. ``Chris Elliott is Lucy. My husband, Sam Robards, is Ethel. And I`m Fred and Ricky.``

The half-hour program follows the adventures of Elliott, a 30-year-old paperboy who lives in an apartment over his parent`s garage.

Elliott-a former writer and recurring character on ``Late Night With David Letterman``-plays a character named Chris Peterson who refuses to face adulthood. The program is a buddy comedy: Elliott`s best friend since high school is Larry, who has accepted adulthood and is married to Sharon, who has no patience for Chris.

Riker should be familiar to regular viewers of the acclaimed series

``Brothers,`` which appeared on Showtime and is now in syndication. She played Kelly and was twice nominated for an ACE award as best actress in a comedy series.

Riker`s story is one of the storied Hollywood tales. She arrived in Los Angeles with $35 and some photos and took a job as a waitress in a hamburger stand.

``I knew all the warnings against what that`s like,`` Riker said. ``The odds are against you. I just never walked that way. I always went more on faith and just that things would be different.``

She`s also appeared in several series, including ``M+A+S+H,`` ``Highway to Heaven,`` ``Murder, She Wrote,`` ``Empty Nest`` and ``Doctor, Doctor,`` and had a recurring role in ``Riptide.``

Riker said ``Get a Life`` is an ``intelligent`` sitcom, not unlike the old Rocky and Bullwinkle cartoons.

``Kids could enjoy those stories, but there were always literary allusions in that cartoon,`` she said. ``You would hear a reference to Omar Khayyam for the 1 percent who would trip on that and like it. There is something for them.

``Although Chris plays a guy on the fringes, he`s bright, and he might sometimes use words that the average audience might not understand.``

It`s unfortunate, Riker said, that television often ``appeals to the lowest common denominator.``

``America is so much brighter than TV gives it credit for,`` she declared. ``Maybe only 45 percent will get it, but, Lord, isn`t it nice to give them something?``